1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadcasting receiver, and more particularly, to a method for upgrading firmware in a cable broadcasting receiver.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A cable broadcasting receiver selling in North America, such as an open cable digital TV and a cable ready digital TV, needs a cable card provided from a corresponding cable provider. The cable card is referred to as a point of deployment (POD) module. Hereinafter, the POD module and the cable card will be used together to refer to the same thing.
A main body to which the cable card is inserted is referred to as a host. In other words, the cable card and the main body are commonly referred to as a cable broadcasting receiver. The cable card is designed to be detachably fixed to a main body slot of the cable broadcasting receiver.
In order to avoid inefficiency occurring in upgrading firmware by collecting cable cards lent to users who view cable broadcasting, there is provided a method for upgrading firmware of the cable cards in real time in a state that the cable cards are distributed to the users. This method uses a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) out-of-band (OOB) channel or a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) inband channel on a cable network (i.e., cable line) to transmit firmware of a cable card. In other words, an inband tuner or OOB tuner of a digital cable broadcasting receiver is used as a medium in order to upgrade firmware of the cable card.
The method for upgrading firmware of a cable card can be divided into an immediate upgrading method and a delayed upgrading method.
The immediate upgrading method is to upgrade firmware of a cable card regardless of a power-on or stand-by state of a cable broadcasting receiver when a cable broadcasting station desires to upgrade it. This method allows a user to recognize that firmware of the cable card is being upgraded using an inband tuner in a power-on state of the cable broadcasting receiver.
The delayed upgrading method is to upgrade firmware of a cable card only in a stand-by state of a cable broadcasting receiver without upgrading it in a power-on state of the cable broadcasting receiver.